"Money is the sinew of war", wrote Cicero, and right he was. Even beyond the obvious basic need to pay soldiers and buy weapons, there are some special occasions when the judicious disbursement of even relatively small amounts of money will bring home truly spectacular strategic results, which it would be very difficult and risky to try and reach through military force.rnA very interesting recent example of the above approach is the Russian government's brilliant decision to lend a helpful financial hand to cash-strapped Kyrgyzs-tan with a $2 billion loan at very favourable credit conditions - whereupon the Kyrgyz government immediately gave the US six months' notice to evacuate the air base at Manas. With an investment equivalent to less than three day's worth of the cumulative cost of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Kremlin has deprived Washington of its last major base in the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia, and has placed the US and to a lesser extent NATO in a rather difficult predicament as regards supporting the ISAF and OEF forces engaged in an increasingly difficult struggle against the Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan. Further, for the US to extricate itself from this predicament would necessarily require pretty unpalatable diplomatic and political concessions.
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